Why Norwich City must change their approach next season

Norwich City were celebrating last weekend as they defeated West Brom 4-0 and confirmed that they would be playing Premier League football next season.

It was a positive attacking display with determination and purpose throughout. Unfortunately for the Canaries though, this hasn’t been the norm this season – far from it.

Too often, Norwich fans have bemoaned a frustrating display where their team didn’t have enough belief. This led to not enough goals and not enough victories.

In reality, they shouldn’t have been sweating about a relegation battle. At the turn of the year, they were comfortably in mid-table and had a chance to push on. Where did it go wrong?

Well, every Norwich fan will tell you that manager Chris Hughton was too happy to settle for a point on occasions. In home games against Newcastle, Fulham and Southampton for example, the opposition appeared there for the taking.

All three games ended 0-0 though and it was dropped points in these matches that saw Norwich become genuine candidates to go down. The winning mentality had turned into a must not lose mentality and this is very dangerous.

Credit must go to Hughton and his team though. He was given the task of keeping Norwich up and he did just that. It was much closer than it should have been though and the manager has to take some blame.

Some will say Norwich have got away with a negative approach, something they might not do again. After all, we can argue that the standard in the bottom half of the table hasn’t been fantastic this season.

So, from this summer onwards, the Norwich mindset has to change. Not necessarily to the gung-ho approach the team adopted under previous manager Paul Lambert, but to one with more ambition.

It is fair enough that Hughton wants to be solid. Being tough to break down is part of being successful. But when the time comes to attack, to dominate teams and to hammer home an advantage – he has to take it.

You can’t underestimate how important the fans belief in the team is either. The Norwich faithful will not tolerate too many cautious displays at the start of next season.

Perhaps the signing of Ricky Van Wolfswinkel will help. Then, the general ambition of the club may well be more positive, something Hughton’s tactics need to reflect.

Everything is there for Norwich to have a fantastic few years. Everyone just needs to believe this is the case.